Getting the Most out of your Laptop Battery

Our IT Service Desk routinely assists users with laptop battery issues, many times from overheating.  Sometimes, even melting.  Here are some tips for making your laptop battery last:

But first, here’s our Tech Tip of the Week …

Ever get tired of typing?  With Windows 10, you can try dictation.  If you have a desktop, make sure you have headphones or a microphone attached.  With a laptop, you can use your built-in microphone.  Here’s how to use it: 

First, turn it on.

·Open your Settings from the Start Menu

·Select Ease of Access

·Select Speech under the Interaction heading

·Switch Turn on Speech Recognition to the On position

Now, try it out in MS Word.

·Open MS Word

·Press the Windows key + H

·Watch the black box at the top of the MS Word window.  When it says “Listening…”, start speaking.

Here’s my test of speech recognition.  I dictated:

now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country period

Here’s what speech recognition typed:

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Windows 10 automatically capitalized the “N” and recognized that I wanted to end the sentence by saying “period”. 

Yeah.  That’s kind of fun.  Let us know if you find it productive for your work.

Battery Basics

 

Laptop batteries can handle a defined number of charge cycles.  Around 500, sometimes more.  A charge cycle is one full discharge to 0% and then recharged back up to 100%.  If you discharge to 75%, then back to 100%, you’ve used a quarter of a cycle.  As your battery matures, each charge cycle decreases your battery’s capacity.  Simply put, the fewer times you drain your battery, the longer it lasts.

Best practice?  Let your battery drain to about 20%, then fully charge.

But like most things, your mileage may vary.

Protect your battery

For maximum battery life, do these things:

·Only use the laptop charger that came with your laptop. 

• Don’t use an off-brand.
• Don’t use a similar charger that has the same type of port.
  • Just because it has the same type of charging port, it doesn’t mean that It provides the current/voltage specific to your laptop.
• If you are unsure, just bring the charger and your laptop to the IT Service Desk.  We’ll let you know if it’s the right one.

·When using your laptop at home, make sure there is an air pocket under your laptop. Without it, the laptop can overheat.

• Don’t place it on a fabric ottoman – place a magazine or other hard surface between the laptop and the fabric.
• Do you keep your laptop in your lap?
  • When it starts getting hot, it’s probably not getting the air pocket it needs.  Switch positions to provide proper venting. 

Battery-friendly Settings

·Turn the screen down.  70% is about right for rooms with lots of light.  You can go down to 20% for dark rooms. 

·Close the apps you aren’t using.  You can always open them back up when you need them.

·Enable your battery saving mode.  Look for it in Settings.

·Switch off Wi-Fi when you’re off the grid.

·USB sticks and devices can drain your battery.  Unplug them if you don’t need them.

·Select Hibernate instead of Sleep when you take a break.

Extra Credit

Your browser can be one of your biggest power drains, particularly if you keep lots of tabs open.  Save your battery by closing those tabs.  Want a way to manage them?  Put your favorites in bookmarks.  It’s an easy way to get to the websites you use frequently.  Be sure to close the tabs when you’re finished. 

Have any questions about this or other tech used at DUSON?

As always, if you have any technical questions or problems, please contact your IT Service Desk at 919-684-9200, or email tocitdl@mc.duke.edu.